Keane happy to go it alone up front

It’s measure of the scale of the task facing Ireland against Spain and also a barometer of the do or die nature of the game for his team, that Giovanni Trapattoni took the highly unusual decision not to name his starting 11 at his eve of match press conference at the PGE Arena in Gdansk yesterday.

Jon Walters is believed to be at the centre of the manager’s deliberations, with Kevin Doyle likely to miss out if Trapattoni gives the nod to the Stoke City player as an extra body to both bolster midfield and back up Robbie Keane as the lone frontman in a 4-5-1 formation. Alternatively, one has the nagging suspicion that it wouldn’t be beyond the manager to throw an extra orthodox midfielder, like Paul Green or Darron Gibson, into the mix.

Keane all but confirmed he was set to start when he said: “If I do play as a lone striker, it’s something I’ve done plenty of times before. It’s different but I enjoy it. You have to play on the shoulder and get in behind defenders. And if the manager wants that from me, I’m happy to do that.”

Keane, who has shipped his usual excess of criticism after failing to impress against Croatia, also played down any suggestion he might have feared for his own place.

For his part, Trapattoni denied the plan he is contemplating for tonight effectively amounts to an exercise in damage limitation.

“I can answer it’s not true,” he said. “What we have to do is believe in our quality, our attitude and our performance. I think psychologically we have overcome the defeat by Croatia. We are back to believing in ourselves. Spain are technically gifted and it will be very important not to give them much space, particularly in midfield.

” Our objective is to be offensive and to try and win but, at same time, we need also to find a way to help the midfield. Sometimes we suffer in this situation.”

With Ireland being quoted at 11/1 to beat Spain, Trap was asked if, in his long career in the game, he’d ever been in charge of a side regarded as such underdogs.